What started out as an innocent comment to the Daily Mail, Gigwise managed to turn into blatant rumor-mongering. In an article in the Daily Mail, T In The Park festival organizer Geoff Ellis remarked about Bowie, “It would be nice for him to do the Main Stage as soon as he feels ready. It feels like unfinished business.” (For those of you who don’t remember, Bowie was scheduled to headline in 2004 before he had to cancel the end of A Reality Tour due to his emergency heart surgery for a condition originally thought to be a pinched nerve in the shoulder.)

Anyway, Scott Colothan at Gigwise decides that molehill really ought to be a mountain. He wrote in his farticle, “The musical institution that is David Bowie is rumored to be headlining next year’s T In The Park festival.” Now I ask you, where exactly in Ellis’ comment did he say that T In The Park was actively working with Bowie to book him as the headliner? In no way can anyone who follows Bowie’s career deduce that because a festival planner wants Bowie to headline their festival that he will do so. Hell, he didn’t even headline the festival that HE planned!

And if that’s not enough to make you throw your hands up in disgust at Colothan’s article, he also mentioned that Bowie originally pulled out of the festival in 2004 due to a shoulder injury. Now if the date today were the end of June 2004, I could understand the mention of Bowie’s shoulder injury. But the date is more than 4 years after Bowie had to cancel and more than 4 years after finding out that the shoulder pain was due to a blocked artery. You know, the type of shoulder pain that is a common symptom of cardiac distress in men?! Gah! What journalist doesn’t have access to Google to check facts before sending an article to print? To be fair, with a bit of thought I can make an educated assumption that Colothan intended to refer to the original reason that Bowie gave for canceling – the shoulder pain. However as it is written, and especially in light of the blatant rumor-mongering, the line is misleading.

Maybe I’m unnecessarily getting my blood pressure up over this, but this article seems like it was written just to tweak the hopes of Bowie fans. Like maybe if the writer mentions the possibility of a live Bowie performance then fans will flock to the site boosting traffic for that month. We the fans with good memories and resources see what you’re trying to do Mr. Colothan… and rather than be simply let down to find out there are no actual negotiations being reported on, we’re aggravated.